


You're gonna go far, Kid.

by arfrid



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Maxine "Max" Mayfield Needs a Hug, Robin Buckley & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Friendship, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Friendship, Robin Buckley Needs a Hug, Vomiting, steve + robin + max is the best trio, you can pry this from my cold dead hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28461210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arfrid/pseuds/arfrid
Summary: When Robin, Max and Steve get stuck in a Russian prison, what do they do to escape? What lengths will the Russians take to make their lives hell?ORThe whump fic which combines my fave prompts I saw on Tumblr.
Relationships: Robin Buckley & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Steve Harrington & Maxine "Max" Mayfield
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	You're gonna go far, Kid.

**Author's Note:**

> TW for vomiting and retching, and just vomit in general.

Robin glanced over at Max in their cold russian cell.

She had Steve and Robin’s hoodies on, with Steve proclaiming that Max needed them most, and Robin had to agree. Steve and her were technically adults, while Max was still a kid.

Max was eating ravenously. Russians knew how to cook, Robin had to give them that.

Robin had finished her own ‘meal’, but Steve was pushing his around. Once Max finished, Steve pushed his stuff on her plate. Max looked up and blinked at him.

“Go on. It’s okay, I’m not hungry.” Steve told her, smiling softly. Max gave a hesitant smile back, before going back to the food. Steve sat himself next to Robin, gazing at Max fondly.

Once again, Robin was in awe about how much he loved these shitheads.

“You’re really not hungry?” Robin asked, skepticism laced in her tone.

Steve shrugged. “She needs it more.”  
  


Robin groaned softly enough so that Max wouldn’t hear. “Dingus, you are going to die if you keep feeding the child.”

“Yeah, it’ll be worth it if the kid stays alive.” Steve whisper-shouted.

“Do you have something you’d like to share with the class?” Max announced. Robin grinned; she’d taught the kid that herself.

Steve glanced at her knowingly.

“Nope, just saying how you wolf down your food faster than an actual wolf.” Steve teased, miming tearing into a piece of chicken. Max laughed.

The sound reverberated around the cell. It was good to hear her laugh.

“Check it out.” Robin muttered. Steve and Max came over. Max gaped at it.

“A rusty vent.” Steve muttered back. “Oh yeah, this’ll work.”

Together with the power of the pencil in Steve’s pocket, a handkerchief from Robin and Max’s spare scrunchies, they managed to get the rusted nails out.

“Do you guys think you could get up there?” Max asked them.

“Yeah, but we’re not leaving you.”

Max rolled her eyes. The sass of this kid, Jesus Christ…

“Haven’t you played any video games? Or movies?” Max asked. When Steve and Robin merely blinked in response, she sighed. “It’ll be too suspicious, and besides, it’s better if one of us go. That means that there’s less chance getting caught. Trust me on this.”  
  


Sir Dingus Harrington blinked again stupidly. “Kid, I’m scared of you.”

Robin discreetly rolled her eyes. _Kid_ was Steve’s nicknames for all the shitheads, and it was disgustingly endearing. From then on, Robin swore on an oath never to call any of the kids _Kid_ ever.

“Okay, what Max is saying makes sense.” Robin pointedly said _Max_ instead of _Kid,_ and Max rolled her eyes again. “The question is, which one of us will go?”

“I can go.” Max volunteered.

“No.” Both Robin and Steve said simultaneously.

Max stomped her foot. “Why nooot?” She whined.

“Because I say so.” Steve reasoned. Everyone was silent. Steve had just said the most dad-thing ever. “Okay, never tell Dustin I said that, okay?”

Robin and Max both grinned at him. Perfect blackmail material.

“But seriously, I think Steve should go.” Robin blurted out.

“Uhm, are you sure? You’re smarter than him-”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, _Maxine_.”

Max opened her mouth for a retort, but before she could say anything, Robin stepped in. “Steve has most chance of winning a fight. I know he hasn’t got the _best_ chance of winning it, but he’s stronger than both of us.”

Max wrinkled her nose. “Debatable.”

“The point is, I think he should go.” Robin finished.

Steve shrugged. “You sure you can handle Shithead numero uno?”

Robin rolled her eyes. “I spat in a Russian’s face while you were unconscious, I can handle a sarcastic little gremlin.”

Steve’s eyes gleamed, and she knew she had given him an idea for a nickname for Max.

Max obviously knew this too, because she groaned and said, “Robin, _why_?”

Steve just gave a mock salute.

“Go easy on her, Gremlin.”

Max groaned with the intensity of a thousand suns.

“Robin, I hate you.” Max announced lightheartedly. “Stupid Steve with his stupid fucking names and that stupid haircut...”  
  


“I agree with you wholeheartedly there, Maxine.” Robin threw herself on her camp bed, then grinned at Max. “Such a girly name for a girly girl and a girly world.”  
  


“Your face _will_ meet my fist.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Max-”

“I’m gonna fucking kill them-”  
  


“Max, just-”

“I need to fucking kill them-”

“Max, please-”

Robin was trying to stop Max from going to the door and screaming insults at the Russians outside, but failing miserably. The reason why the redhead was so angry  was because of the already-dark-purple bruise on her jawbone.

“Max, it’s okay-”

Max snarled at her.  “ It is  _not_ okay, I am going to  _kill_ those sons of bitches-”

Robin pleaded. “Please, Max, you’re not thinking rationally.”

“Hey! Hey dickheads! Asswipes! Fucktards!” Max yelled through the door. A Russian came close the door, looking down and locking eyes.

“What do you want, little girl?” He sneered in a heavy Russian accent. “Stop screaming at us like toddler throwing a tantrum.”  


“Who the fuck gives you the right to treat my friend like that? Who the _fuck_ allows you to hurt your prisoners?” Max shouted through the door. “Isn’t there like, some dumbshit law that prevents you from doing that or some shit?”

“Your government has no authority. Here, we make our own rules.”

Max flinched back bodily, like she’d been punched in the gut, but then shook her head. Before Robin could figure out why she had flinched, the Russian got fed up and opened the door. Max threw herself at him, punching every inch of him she could hit and kicking him in the groin.

Before the man himself could throw any punches, Robin grabbed Max by the waist, pulling her backwards.

“Robin! Let me go, let me go!” She shouted in a blind rage. 

“We are so sorry, Mr Russian guy.”

“Lenkov.”

Robin blinked. “What?”

“My name is Lenkov.”

  
“Right, Mr Lenkov, I am so sorry for Max’s actions. She didn’t mean it, she was just angry and annoyed about the small space.” Robin finished apologetically.

Lenkov’s face softened a fraction of a fraction. “The bitch better get used to it.”

“The _fuck_ did you just call me-”

Robin tightened her grip on Max. “Thank you Mr Lenkov please leave-”

Lenkov walked out, scowling at Max as he did so.

Robin sighed in relief, while Max roared in outrage.

“Why the fuck did you stop me?!” Max demanded. “Why the fuck didn’t you let me pummel him?”

The name ‘Kid’ almost rolled off her tongue. “Max, he’s four times your size, and could probably one hit KO’d you. Be grateful that I saved your ass.”

“My _ass_ does not need saving.” Max told her scornfully. Then her face softened slightly. “Thanks, though.”

Robin sighed and sat on her camp bed.

“No problem, Max, no problem.”

The name  _Kid_ almost rolled her off her tongue again.

She was really close to calling her it this time.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Robin heaved a sob.

Max was supposed to be  _safe_ . This wasn’t supposed to  _happen_ . It wasn’t supposed to  _be_ like this.

But the universe must have decided it was, because there was the tough, fierce MadMax, lying on her side in a  pool of her own sick, her face and body bloodied and beaten as much as Steve’s was on the infamous 4 th of July.

“No.” She heaved another sob and ran towards the redhead, “No, no, _no, no, no, no, no, no, no!_ ”

She rolled her on her back and checked for a pulse, almost crying in relief.

“Please, Max, you can do this. You can do this, please, we- we just have to wait a little longer, okay?” She pleaded, desperately hoping it was true, and that Steve _hadn’t_ just been caught and locked in some kind of twisted form of Solitary Confinement. “Please, I swear on my life I will protect you, I just need you to be _alive_ for me to protect you.”

Max was silent; for the first time, she was free of retorts, which just made Robin sob harder.

“Kid, I just need you to be alive for me, please, I won’t able to go on with your blood on my hands, _please_ , Kid-” Robin sobbed, before realizing what she said. 

_ Kid. _

“I’ll- call you _Kid_ as much as you want. I’ll annoy you the way Steve does with his stupid nicknames, I’ll hold you the way Hopper does with El, please, _kid_.” She puts as much emphasis on the _Kid_ as possible. 

A beat passes.

“Come on, Kid.”

Another beat.

“Come on, Kid!”

If Robin had been there the night Joyce and Hopper had saved Will from the Upside Down for the first time, she would have paralleled it with this moment. Alas, she had not been there, and was unable to compare it to anything she had ever felt in her life.

She looked up at the cell door, only to see L e nkov grinning sadistically at her.

She glared with all the strength she could muster, she scowled  with the intensity of a thousand suns. 

“You are going to pay.” She said in a dark, low voice akin to that of a crouching lion. “Oh, you’re gonna fucking pay for this, bitch.”

And at that exact moment, the alarm went off. Lenkov gave her a look that plainly said,  _Witchcraft?,_ before vanishing down the hall.

There was the sound of distant gunshots, but Robin’s full attention was on Max.

“Come on, Kid.” She gulped down a few tears. “You can’t die here. They’ve come. Can you can hear the alarm? That’s them. They’ve come to help you. You can’t die here just as help comes, okay?” Sudden determination seized her. “You will _not_ die here.”

Max’s breathing stopped.

“The hell did I _just_ say?! _”_ She whisper shouted, before starting to do CPR, her heart hammering loudly and rapidly in her ribcage. _Don’t die. It’ll be my fault if she does…_

After a few more mouth-to-mouth breaths, and as footsteps approached the doors quickly with the sound of voices, by some kind of miracle, Max coughed.

Robin was so happy she laughed airily. Max coughed more, and a guy – Sam Owens, she thought – took one glance in and shouted, “Oxygen mask! Oxygen mask, now!”

Steve stormed in, Oxygen mask held aloft, and tailing him was the whole of the party and basically everyone who was involved in the apocalypse.

“Back, back! She needs space!” Came Owens’ voice. Out of nowhere. a team of paramedics and a stretcher entered the cell. Everyone cleared out of the way and up on the stretcher she went.

They all followed the stretcher quickly, none quite as fast as Robin.

She patted her on the hand as she struggled to breathe. “You did good, Kid.”


End file.
